Prompting Europe

🌟 2024 in figures for startups in the Netherlands: rising investments despite decline in Q4 🔢 Recently, the Quarterly Startup Report of the last quarter of 2024 was published—a comprehensive numerical overview of how Dutch startups did in 2024 regarding funding. 💸 The conclusion? They did well: startups collectively raised a quarter more in investments than in 2023. Of the ten largest investments in 2024, Nearfield Instruments (€135 million) ranks second. Citryll from Oss was fifth (€85 million) and the €68 million raised by Eindhoven-based semiconductor supplier Axelera AI was good for seventh place. 🥂 Reason enough to invite all startups and investors who raised or invested money in 2024 to a festive New Year's edition. Together with Dutch Startup Association, we organized an event in Amsterdam (TNW) and Eindhoven (LUMO Labs). On to 2025! Read the whole article here: https://lnkd.in/e6fEW-4B Margarita Rivas Andy Lurling Bart Brouwers Sven Bakkes Lucien Burm Johan Schaap

Welcome to a EUR 2.3b room! Still, a very small room compared to elsewhere in the world! 2024 was still quite a good year for Dutch startups in terms of investments. Together they raised this EUR 2.3b last year. Tonight we celebrated this succes, which is important, with the 'class of 2024'! Thanks for joining us and we wish you all the best for 2025 and after. We are sure we will see many of you at the next Fundfests (each quarter), where you raise or fund the next round with the best! 2.3 billion is a significant amount, and compared to the rest of Europe, we have consistently ranked in the top 5 for years. However, to put this into perspective: in the U.S., AI startups like Anthropic have managed to raise the same amount or more in a single round multiple times in the same year. For our competitiveness, it will become fundamentally important to achieve a multiple of the current investment levels. The Draghi recommendation for radical choices becomes very evident here. But here is to the winnners of 2024! 🥂

Volgende week dinsdag slaat IO+ voor de tweede keer de handen ineen met Dutch Startup Association. Vanaf 17.00 zijn alle startups die afgelopen jaar investeringsgeld binnenhaalden én de investeerders die dat mogelijk maakten welkom bij gastheren TNW (Amsterdam) en LUMO Labs (Eindhoven). Kom onder het genot van een (0.0) biertje precies te weten hoe startupland het in 2024 heeft gedaan, want Lucien Burm en Johan Schaap presenteren de jaarcijfers. En dan kun je ook nog goede voornemens delen met je mede startupondernemers of (potentiële) investeerders. Leuk toch? Let op! Registreren is verplicht en no show = no go. https://lnkd.in/eegdQaq5 Heb je geen mail van mij ontvangen, terwijl je toch echt geld binnenhaalde/investeerde in 2024 en kom je uit de regio Limburg/Noord-Brabant/Gelderland/Overijssel? Laat het me dan sowieso even weten! Bart Brouwers Marieke Brouwers IO+ NL Margarita Rivas Andy Lurling

Happy New Year, European Entrepreneurs! As in startup tradition, this is of course going to be your best year evah! 😌 🚀 For our Dutch fellow founders: If last year was already good for you and you raised a round and started or scaled your startup, please join us at FundFest 2025 in both Amsterdam and Eindhoven, the exclusive quarterly event of founders and investors who either funded or got funded last year. Get together and celebrate succes and be off to a good start for this year by networking with the best. For all other founders throughout Europe: we are looking to expand FundFest throughout Europe's startup hubs. Drop me a line if you are interested to be part of that. This year, thanks to you and all other startups, Europe will reverse its temporary decline and accelerate. And that rising tide will lift all boats. See you all around in 2025. Links to registration for Amsterdam and Eindhoven in the comments later.

Got 800bn? (part II) Money doesn't make you happy, but is solves a lot of problems. For startups, funding is not everything, but everything is possible with enough funding. But Europe has been falling behind for decades in levels of venture capital, leaving us with a 5x-10X gap. There is momentum, but we are our biggest threat, by always trying to find consensus: It might be too little too late. This is a moonshot. We don't need small steps. We need giant leaps to accelerate. This is what a small tour of events in one week to Eindhoven, Brussels and Amsterdam basically boiled down to: the 800bn euro question, how to get Europe's acceleration funded. I discussed it with our Minister of Enonomic Affairs Dirk Beljaarts last Monday during the 'Pact of Entrepreneurs' at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven. If he wants to make a gesture, like guarantees towards pension funds to funnel more money to venture capital, it better be a 'giant' gesture. We need giant leaps, not small steps. We also discussed the need to show we mean business in the European councils and lead other countries to show the same. From France Digitale, Antoine Latran and Marianne Tordeux Bitker held a great high level event Wednesday morning in the European Parliament around the release of their report and open letter on "Unlocking (institutional) investment for competitiveness", including participants like Damian Boeselager, Audrey Soussan, Martin Bresson, Anders Stromblad, Michiel Scheffer with contributions of Victor van Hoorn, Tomas Vaclavicek, Déborah Loye, Yannis Vatopoulos and many others, including yours truly. Mine was the same as always: To scale Europe's investments in startups, we need the giant leaps too. We need massive acceleration of funding application. From Danske Iværksættere - Danish Entrepreneurs, Simone Skovshoved and my illustrious startup industry leader friend Peter Kofler, organised the fantastic all star event "The Innovation Games" to discuss how fast we can get you Europe back on track to global competitiveness. I tried to set the scene with some stats of the current state of Europe, where we are coming from. I had the honour to ask some 'direct Dutch' questions to Morten Løkkegaard, Niels Flemming Hansen, Hedi Mardisoo and András G. Inotai about our chances. Serena Borbotti-Frison put Urmas Paet, Anouk van Brug, Paulo Cunha, Michiel Scheffer and Christian Walther Øyrabø on the spot for the same. All supported by João Silva, Miguel Ferrer Jiménez, Leen Anthuenis, Ludovica Lo Sordo, Natalia Oledzka, Kalle Fahlvik, David de Bakker and Esa Kaunistola to make this happen. There was a lot of power for change in the room and bold ideas were discussed. Unfortunately when I asked the crowd at the end who believed that this will all happen in the next 5 years, no one raised their hand... The time of ideas has passed, it is time to execute. Momentum is there. If Europe needs to scale up, it better like a startup and start shipping! Let's mega ;)

Let's kill 'Deep Tech'. If Europe wants to create its first trillion-dollar company, we should stop to overly focus on the catchphrase deep tech and get more specific. Deep Tech is the word-du-jour since a while now. Deep Tech has been the buzzword for years, with governments and some VCs betting on it to ‘save’ Europe. Many believe the next trillion-dollar companies will emerge from this space. But here is a simple argument: most trillion-dollar companies are not that Deep Tech, aren't they? It’s time to rethink our focus. Let’s step away from the overused term “Deep Tech” and get specific, for example by differentiating between Hard Tech and High Tech. - Hard Tech being foundational: chips, photonics, quantum mechanics, nuclear fusion, carbon capture, etc. - High Tech being transformative: AI, software, and platforms that scale globally. Here’s the catch: Europe can only lead if we invest in both, and maybe even more in High Tech than in Hard Tech and I know that is against current (government) trends, but for now it probably scales faster. Hard Tech lays the groundwork, High Tech builds the total value. The companies that will define the future—true trillion-dollar businesses—will come from the amplification of these two. If Europe wants to compete on the global stage, it’s time to double down on both Hard Tech and High Tech. It's time for MEGA tech ;) Okay, that last one went to far, i know. But tell me what you think. Are we going to make it, if we focus only on hard tech? New tech from labs that needs years to develop to build on top of? That is what Europe seems to be looking for. Mistake or smart?

Looking for EUR 800000000000 (per year). Anyone? I need it to fix and scale Europe. 😌 I am on a mission to make the next big tech to come from Europe and apparently, I am going to need that amount, because that is exactly the way Europe will get competitive again, according to Draghi's recent report. Where to get 800bn? Since the report mentioned this number, things are a bit restless and nervous, because where to get it? Besides money printing (Draghi's new common bonds), the idea is that the private market should join in. Trillions of Euros from European pension funds, i.e. your money for a rainy day, is being targeted, because it now flows mostly to markets outside Europe. I will try reading your mind: why don't they just force them to invest here? That was exactly suggested last week by the British government. And I do understand the situation in Great Britain. And the situation in the Netherlands and other European countries. But we should be against governments forcing pension funds to invest into local domestic assets. Money should flow freely to gain the best returns for it's people. I said it before: Pension funds are no ATM for startup funding. So why not make it very attractive? Why not be bold here, in Europe. We have hurdles and costs that can be removed in our capital market (union). We can back investments with guarantees. We can co-invest. Our Dutch government is aiming for this kind of blended finance. And it is not new. In France and Belgium we have seen the same already being deployed. But it is all still relatively small, not the bold measure that is required. This needs to be solved at European level at large. Or else we will encourage internal competition, causing more fragmentation, which is ultimately why we are losing as a continent from the US and others. We need funding at scale, if we want Europe to scale. Europe has momentum though. The 28th regime is on the agenda, a.ka. the EU-INC, there are planned capital market union improvements, a startup commissioner, etc. But we need to fire all cilinders (or batteries for you e-drivers) of the European Engine. It is time to also show pension funds and institutional investors what Europe is made of. We need to be more attractive in the long term, creating the best place in the world to live and work. Let's Make Europe Grand Again. 😉 Do tell me in the comments: how do you think we can get the funds needed to fix Europe? Or maybe you think this is all just the wrong approach? A hint: Over EUR 10000000000000 resides on European saving accounts with non-inflation-compensating interests. This 10tr is probably invested in state bonds mostly due to regulation. Apologies for the lazy AI image 😉

🎟 🇪🇺 No, Europe's number is not up. But you would think so now, wouldn’t you? My timeline seems too quiet about Trump's election victory. Many of you are probably processing... or celebrating. I don't mind what your stance is in US Politics. We need to fix Europe anyway. It has been a long time coming, to say it US style. Consider it extra motivation and pressure. We already knew we needed to change radically and start investing at that same radical measure. The recent reports from Draghi and Letta do not appear out of the blue. Here is a simple summary for you about Europe's economic competitiveness: 👉 Startups ARE the solution. I kid you not. They are and in many ways, because, in this age: Tech power = Economic power = Geopolitical power. We have been neglecting for a long time to truly allow big tech companies to emerge and exit in Europe. Now finally, you can feel things are changing and moving with the recent reports, Ursula von der Leyen's mission statement, a startup commissioner with a focus on the 28th regime, the EU-INC petition etc. All fueled by Europe's founders and investors through many startup country organisations like Dutch Startup Association, France Digitale, Roma Startup, Italian Tech Alliance, Danske Iværksættere - Danish Entrepreneurs, SISP - Swedish Incubators & Science Parks, Adigital, Startup Poland, Startup-Verband and many others working together in organisations like Allied For Startups, Prompting Europe and The EU Inc Petition. We should battle the fragmenting forces in Europe, reinvent and get Europe back to the top. No member state will be able to fix this alone, because that doesn't work for startups. It is too small. And too small thinking. I am not going to say MEGA, but you know what I mean 😉 Let's add some fuel to the fire and accelerate Europe 🔥

Thanks Davide, we had a great evening and thank you and the rest of the Shakers team for your contribution!

We are looking forward to the next stop of the tour, Madrid! Registration is open.